Author: Peter Maass

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.

Back-Room Theocrat: Moqtadah al-Sadr Has to Outsmart His Rivals and Outmaneuver the Americans

The New York Times Magazine
May 11, 2003

Najaf is one of the great spiritual centers of the world’s 120 million Shiites because it is home to the tomb of Imam Ali, founder of the Shiite faith and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad. But the true heart of Najaf today, and the place where the political ... (Read more)

Slumlords: Dispatch From Baghdad

The New Republic
May 3, 2003

A few days after American troops entered Baghdad, I went to Saddam City, a sprawling slum inhabited almost exclusively by Shia Muslims. But, by the time I got there, Saddam City was gone. Yes, the people were still there, as was the poverty–the kids playing barefoot ... (Read more)

Baghdad Dispatch

My latest story, in The New Republic, about Shia fundamentalism in Iraq, is posted here.

Blogging Again, Lightly

It’s been a while since I lasted posted because I have been covering the war in Iraq. Internet access has been limited, and blogging will remain infrequent until I return to the United States. My stories on the war (and related issues) are posted on the “Magazine Articles” page of ... (Read more)

“Good Kills”: The Marines of the Third Battalion Fought the Old-Fashioned Way. Their Victims Weren’t All Soldiers.

The New York Times Magazine
April 20, 2003

As the war in Iraq is debated and turned into history, the emphasis will be on the role of technology–precision bombing, cruise missiles, decapitation strikes. That was what was new. But there was another side to the war, and it was the one that most ... (Read more)

Soldier of Misfortune

The New York Times Magazine
April 13, 2003

(The following is an interview I conducted with Lance Corporal Derrick Jensen)

First off I want people to understand that there is more than just combat. We’re not seeing fighting at all times. Sometimes accidents happen. The other night, a good friend ... (Read more)

Hungry Road: Food, Too, Can Be a Weapon of the War in Iraq

The New York Times
April 6, 2003

AL KUT, Iraq–A few days ago I drove with a Marine convoy into the desert north of Nasiriya, heading toward Baghdad. The landscape was as unforgiving as it comes–parched and barren, like the moon with an atmosphere of dusty oxygen. As we moved forward, mostly ... (Read more)

Pressed: Dispatch from Kuwait

The New Republic
March 31, 2003

Last week, I watched nearly a dozen British tanks and armored vehicles storm across the Kuwaiti desert on cue–literally. The British military had arranged a “press facility,” as they call such affairs, and, although the men and women of the media had ... (Read more)

To Torture or Not to Torture?

If a captured terrorist does not wish to talk about attacks that his colleagues are planning, should he be made to talk? If so, how? That’s the subject of my latest story, in the Week in Review section of The New York ... (Read more)

If a Terror Suspect Won’t Talk, Should He Be Made To?

The New York Times
March 8, 2003

KUWAIT — The Philippine police knew they had an unusual case when they arrested Abdul Hakim Murad on Jan. 6, 1995. After Mr. Murad accidentally set a small fire in his Manila apartment, the police reportedly found gallons of sulfuric acid and nitric acid, as well as ... (Read more)